Thursday, July 26, 2012

Sermon on the Mount by Russ Aikins

While I was studying woodcarving with Ludwig Kieninger back in the late 80's, a fellow student named Russ Aikins was working on impressive carving of the Sermon on the Mount. I did not get to see it completed. When I last saw it, it was still a work in progress.

I recently learned that over 20 years later, Russ completed the carving and it is now installed at the First United Methodist Church of Plano. The piece is approximately four feet wide and the composition includes over 50 individual figures. There is a nice write up of the history of this piece at the Star Local News. There is also this video on Vimeo showing details of the carving.

Hopefully I will be able to go and see the carving soon. If you get an opportunity to see it, let me know what you think.